For Monday's class we had two guest speakers come in. They were both involved in the foster care system and also in the adoption process. Caitlin's experience was fairly positive while Jesse's was more on the negative side. I think it's great that we got a personal and entirely new perspective on foster care and adoption during this class.
Caitlin's family life was clearly complicated but her willingness to talk to our class about her experiences was admirable. She was involved in kinship care by her aunt and uncle when her mother could no longer care for her. In 'Shattered Bonds' Dorthy Roberts seems to lean towards this option for other children too. "Children can often remain safely with kin while maintaining contact with their parents, leaving open the possibility of reunification if circumstances improve" (162). Keeping children in touch with their biological family members is a good option in most cases because there is probably already a bond to some degree and Roberts is adamantly against severing those ties. As great as kinship care appears I wonder if sometimes, having that parent present in their children's lives could be damaging. For instance if the relationship wasn't a good one and if the parent showed no remorse or caring about why their child was taken from them, it could be an emotional roller coaster for a child that could potentially manifest itself later in life.
Jesse's experience was much different. He was adopted after one phone call by a woman from Minnesota who allegedly paid the social worker to adopt several children whom she then (from what I gathered from Jesse's story) didn't care for the children or respect their feelings and was an unstable mother. So Jesse's experience with the foster care system was a more positive one because the foster family that he spent the most time with, loved him and wanted to adopt him but were deemed 'too old' by the state. I see this as very unfortunate because what was wanted by both parties, especially Jesse who was old enough himself to state what he would have wanted at the time, was completely disregarded. The policy of "concurrent permanency planning" which is a policy that "places foster care children on two tracks at the same time - one track focuses on reuniting them with their parents; the other seeks to find them a permanent home with another family. Caseworker must pursue both goals simultaneously" (111). Was this what Jesse's social worker was trying to abide by? He went in and out of his home and the system for many years until one day the social worker allows a woman from MN to fly Jesse away from everything he's familiar with by this point in his life. My first question is why are the opinions of the children not considered more often than not? It's their lives we're messing with and the effects of the choice that's made is what they have to deal with for the remainder of their lives. I just think it's so unfair that they're not asked or, like in Jesse's case, not even really considered.
Another question I'd like to pose is one that's straight out of 'Shattered Bonds': "What would happen if we devoted more resources to supporting families instead of foster care?" (129).
Very interesting blogpost. I especially found the point about concurrent permanency planning interesting. It would almost seem that in Jessie's case the social workers were attempting to do this. However, this almost seems to be an ethical issue for several reasons. On the one hand it allows for a supposedly good outcome for the child either way. On the other hand that creates an unstable environment for the child because they are never in a stable, loving home, they are shifted around and never have that full sense of belonging. I also agree that the desires of the child should be taken more into account. Jessie, at the age of 11, would have been at an acceptable age I think to voice an opinion about where he wanted to be and who he wanted to live with. I agree with you that it was interesting to hear such differing views of the foster care system from the two speakers. It was interesting how even though Jessie was involved with foster care much longer he viewed it as a much more positive thing than Caitlin did.
ReplyDeleteMerideth E.
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